This is a 5* modern day love story with twists and turns keeping you captivated and enthralled. The back story is of a writer who’s moral fibre is pulled taut by an opportunity but at what cost? The Guild have plans for him; a demand that has never been made before. Pedro skilfully interweaves his tale from this platform to introduce of a group of elderly residents at a retirement home. Restrained by their frailty this eclectic group seize the evolution of the internet to expand their horizons and live out their fantasies in virtual time. Alongside this story we have two working class men. Manuel is elderly and a communist, his political views well known befriends a younger man that is hard working, honest but disenfranchised; their friendship so different from that of the unstable computer genius and the manipulative and controlling banker. Step in their girlfriends; Marlene, wild and free, she takes what she wants, when she wants it without a care for anyone else. Then there is Sofia, a gentle innocent. Reality says that life can be good to people and then again it can be just as cruel. Each one of our characters lives the highs and lows of relationships won and lost and Pedro Barrento has pulled all these characters together into one fantastic tale. A gripping read that I thoroughly recommend.

I would like to offer a very warm welcome Sandra Steiner who has very kindly offered a ‘blog exchange’. An inspirational woman in herself, her books have helped people all over the world, inspiring them to create happier futures for themselves through her work. Please take a moment to enjoy Sandra’s blog and follow her work. Sandra will be publishing my blog on her website today titled “The Madness of Authors” which is a little piece I think you will have fun with, so please, stop by her website and check out my latest blog!

CHERISH THE PAST – EXCERPT

PROLOGUE

Angie sighed. A small smile began to form as she recalled the moments that led up to this incredible feeling. Life was good. No, life was amazing. It hadn’t always been, but today at forty-six, it sure was. She had reached a good space in her life. She was content, in love, at peace with her past, and excited about her future. Tomorrow she was marrying her soul mate. She had nearly given up hoping she would find him. He had actually prayed that she would find him before his birthday. Or so he said, and she had no reason not to believe him.

As she sat on the beach with Candy watching the waves roll in, the memories of a lifetime came crashing in reminding her to cherish the past.

Twenty-nine years earlier

CHAPTER ONE

Angie woke with a smile on her lips, for the last time, in the room of her childhood. The sun was streaming in the window, and the curtains were billowing in the wind. Stretching and slowly opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was her beautiful gown of white. The exquisite lace veil was hanging beside it, and her white sandals were set out with them. Excitement surged through her. Today was their day. The first day of the rest of their lives. Just like most little girls, she had dreamed and planned her wedding day for years. She had been waiting her entire life for this moment. The wedding plans were made long ago; her dreams and desires of love would now become a reality.

Angie was not quite eighteen. In fact her high school graduation had been just the weekend before. At this moment though, she would rather not think about that night. Alex had disappeared from the grad party, and she had to get her mother to pick her up. She thought he had seemed overly upset the next day when she confronted him about leaving her there. It wasn’t like him to holler at her. Well, sometimes her imagination got the best of her.

Sandra Steiner back cover

Sandra Steiner front cover

ABOUT THE TRILOGY

The trilogy I have written portrays three incredibly strong women who are faced with difficult circumstances in their lives and the journey they went through to overcome them. Spring Island is a fictional place in which they all find comfort and hope in one way or another.

My purpose for writing these books was to offer hope for those who need it….inspiration to carry on in life. If they inspire only one person, I will have been successful.

Please watch for the first book to be released in July 2014 – Cherish the Past. Book Two – Live for Today – August 2014 Book Three – Dream for Tomorrow

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sandra completed a Bachelor of Education degree after high school and has been working for the last twenty years in the Accounting field. Becoming a published author has always been a dream. She is a proud mother and grandmother. She lives with her husband on Vancouver Island in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia Canada.

Since the death of her teenage daughter in 2004 she has inspired many to think positively and to live life for the moment. Over the years she has motivated many individuals to believe in themselves, and they have encouraged me to write and share my experiences. She is a strong woman who believes anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

She would like to thank everyone for all their help promoting her books!

It’s the most extraordinary thing and it happened when I was least expecting it. A writer has emerged from Australia with all the poetry and beauty in her words that her country exudes by the bucket full.

Burial Rites

An unlikely topic in which to find such eloquence and beauteous flow, but it is here in the subject of the last application of Capital Punishment that took place in Iceland on January 12, 1830 that Hannah Kent has chosen to launch her debut novel.

The story is centred on the convict Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a farmhand and Friðrik Sigurðsson, a farmer’s son from Katadalur. Together they were convicted of the crime of murdering two men and for this; they were executed by beheading.

Grim must have been Hannah’s days as she researched the details of the execution methods most commonly used, such as burning at the stake, beheading and drowning. She would have delved into archives that in shivering detail would have described how men were more commonly beheaded or hung. That, supposedly-wayward women were lowered into the river directly next to the Law Rock itself with ropes, to either freeze to death or drown. Because Agnes was accused of killing her lover Nathan, the question of the choice of her execution hangs in the air like frozen stalactites; sharp as a hanging dagger, unanswered and so failing to plunge into the darkness and shatter the peace.

The structure is inspired. Agnes talks to you in the first person but the other characters in this gripping tale are written in the third person. The resulting affect is that you can feel, see and hear everything from all sides, all around you. Her skill is to be admired and thoroughly applauded. But more than this, it is the very words she uses that bring you to Agnes’ very soul in torment:

“The sagas I know by heart. I am sinking all I have left and going underwater. If I speak, it will be in bubbles of air. They will not be able to keep my words for themselves. They will see the whore, the madwoman, the murderess, the female dripping blood into the grass and laughing with her mouth choked with dirt. They will say ‘Agnes’ and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lambs circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there”.

If you read anything this year then please, read this. Its hard subject is dealt with so sensitively and with such nurturing care that you will feel as if you are the one gifted with Agnes’ lost life and smile as you greet your day.